So here’s my dilemma: I need a new laptop and I have been drooling over the System76 series laptops for a better part of a year now as they were the first Ubuntu OEM and not to mention an independent retailer which goes a long way to tickle my heartstrings. Recently, Dell entered the market and with their clout are able to offer a whole lot of bang for the buck and while their base product selection is limited the options are excellent so here I find myself torn with regards to the value proposition of the purchase.
Below are the specs from each company for the laptop I am looking to buy:
- Inspiron E1505–$1,578.00 ($1,672.67 S&H and Tax)
- Processor–Intel® Core™ 2 Duo processor T7200 (4MB Cache/2.00GHz/667MHz FSB)
- OS–Ubuntu Edition version 7.04
- LCD Panel–15.4 inch UltraSharp™ Wide Screen SXGA+ Display with TrueLife™ (1400×1050)
- Memory–2GB DDR2 SDRAM at 667MHZ, 2 DIMM
- Video Card–256MB NVIDIA® GeForce® Go 7300 TurboCache™
- Hard Drive–100GB 7200rpm SATA Hard Drive
- CD/DVD–8X CD/DVD Burner (DVD+/-RW) with double-layer DVD+R write capability
- Sound–Integrated Audio
- Wireless–IntelPRO/Wireless 3945a/g
- Battery–85 WHr 9-cell Lithium Ion Primary Battery
- Warranty–1Yr Ltd Warranty and Mail-In Service
- Extra Power–90 Watt Spare AC Adapter
- Bluetooth–No
- Serval–$1,859.00 (includes S&H)
- Processor–Intel® Core™ 2 Duo processor T7200 (4MB Cache/2.00GHz/667MHz FSB)
- OS–Ubuntu Edition version 7.04
- LCD Panel–15.4 inch WXGA (1280×800)
- Memory–2GB DDR2 SDRAM at 667MHZ, 2 DIMM
- Video Card–256MB NVIDIA® GeForce® Go 7600 VRAM
- Hard Drive–100GB 5400rpm SATA Hard Drive
- CD/DVD–8X CD/DVD Burner (DVD+/-RW) with double-layer DVD+R write capability
- Sound–Integrated Audio
- Wireless–Intel 802.11 abg
- Battery–6-cell Lithium Ion Primary Battery
- Warranty–1Yr Ltd Warranty and Mail-In Service
- Extra Power–90 Watt Spare AC Adapter
- Bluetooth–Yes
The difference is about $186 in Dell’s favor but with that savings comes a better screen and faster hard drive furthering the technical gap. In System76’s favor is a wealth of positive reviews about their service and support, largely due to the fact that they are a small company which makes every customer count, the inclusion of a Bluetooth adapter as well as a built in webcam. I find myself torn between personal politics and maximizing the value of my purchase.
Here are the things I am keen on:
- Big bright screen
- Large and fast SATA hard drive
- Plenty of fast RAM
- 100% compatibility
System76 is guaranteed 100% compatibility and supplies many of the drivers themselves to ensure it. Dell on the other hand, I’m not too sure about. Yes, they are selling Ubuntu laptops but are they 100% compatible? I’ve read some articles about early screw ups with grub which doesn’t give me the warm and fuzzies about either their commitment or capabilities but they seem to be making some sort of an effort with their wiki.
Like the camera I’m giving myself 30 days to sort it out and weigh the pros and cons but I want to know what would you buy and why?
(Hot Pocket + 1 Extra Minute Cooking) - 10 Minutes Cooling = Blistered Lips
Oddly enough, Management is just about 100% behind my new hobby here and has not even raised an eybrow when I mentioned that I need to get a Speedlite and 50mm lens. Rolled her eyes, sure, but that is just a sign that I am talking way to much about camera. Obsessing is another hobby of mine. So on the shopping list for the next couple of months are:
- Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 II Camera Lens
- Canon 430EX Speedlite Flash
- Opteka Battery Pack Grip with 2 Batteries
- Canon EF 75-300mm f/4-5.6 III USM Telephoto Lens
Oh, yeah, and a new laptop from System76 because I have been a very good boy. 
Now that ugly episode between myself and Jinzora is in the past our relationship is blossoming and more importantly my cheap ass self has a viable home stereo solution. Cobbled from and old laptop and a set of free PC speakers given to me some 3 years ago by eMusic it is prominently (Management might say embarrassingly) featured in our living room atop our equally cheap ass 27″ Sony Trinitron (bought for 50 bucks from Prudential Healthcare when they closed their Roseland, NJ offices). Call me Sanford because I hate to see things go to waste.
Anyways, here’s a shot of set up:
The laptop is a Sony PCG-SR33 that we bought back in 2001 which never was much of a workhorse having only 128MB of RAM, a 600 MHz Celeron, and Windows ME (BLECH!). Wireless was always spotty as the unit heats up to the point where you could make a batch of fajitas on it. In this reincarnation, I’m running Ubuntu 6.06 with all non-essential services turned off and for networking I’m using a 3COM network card hooked into a Linksys WET54GS5.
The speakers are a set of Logitech Soundman X2s which do a capable job and provide a surprising bit of thump (the subwoofer is behind the TV). Target PC only gave them a 5.0 but I disagree and would rate them in the 8.5 range as they sound nice and provide quite a bit of volume. But hey, they were free!
On the software front, I tried using Rhythmbox and Amarok plus SSHFS but found that the Linksys unit could not handle the traffic and had a tendency to crash. Amarok refused to playback, deciding to eat up all available memory resulting in the laptop locking up. This is not to mention that the combination of those two packages plus SSHFS would cause the Sony to run so hot we had to turn on the AC and make some fresh iced tea. Switching to Jinzora plus Beep Media Player turned out to be the right combination, particularly now that Last.fm support is working. Firefox and Beep have relatively small resource footprints so the laptop runs cooler and when the switch hiccups it is not a complete and utter disaster.
So there you have it, my home stereo solution without dropping a dime on parts. Here’s a run down of the current Jinzora stats, a little low as I am rebuilding my collection so it is about 50GB short at the moment:
- Artists: 1654
- Albums: 1859
- Tracks: 21845
- Size: 124.32 GB
Seeing as I did a complete re-installation rather than an upgrade I half expected that it was going to take me a week or so to get things back to that warm and fuzzy zone. Not so, everything is nicely organized and I’ve actually started re-using some services that sort of fell by the wayside and now feel re-energized and more productive. The combination of Beagle, Gnome Deskbar, Liferea, Mozilla, and Foxylicious plus del.icio.us is a one hell of a force in organizing and perusing through the detrius of my online life.
My desktop is very OSX-y in that I prefer an application bar at the bottom for all my regular tasks and applications and the main menu bar on top and both these panels are set yo autohide to maximize screen real estate. The single most used item for me is on the bottom panel between Liferea and the calculator: Gnome Deskbar. From there I can launch applications, search with Beagle or any of my MyCroft engines, as well as both my normal bookmarks and my del.icio.us ones. It is that damn cool.
This is a good example of what Beagle can do; searching for the word “Books” returns some PDFs, IM conversations, news feeds, applications, and folders. Tied in with the Gnome Deskbar I can also search across my bookmarks and surfing history.
Now I’m not the biggest fan of Rhythmbox as its iTunes inspired interface does little to excite me and, like iTunes, it pretty much sucks for managing large collections. However, the one huge thing going for it is SMB support so I can easily point it at my backup music server (running Ubuntu but only holding 30% of all my music) and have my collection at my fingertips for playback and with native last.fm support I can keep track of all my listening habits.
With a kid on the way I’ve decided to get a little more serious about keeping track the photos I take and I’ve found F-Spot to be very intuitive and adept for that task. Highlights include the slider bar to search photos by date and the tagging feature which helps in providing metatags to group photos across the collection.
Needless to say this release of Ubuntu has taken it to the next level and I’m back to that bubbling feeling of joy when using my laptop. When trees stop falling on my house I have to pull out the old PayPal account and make a donation as the work they and the rest of the OpenSource community are doing is worth paying for.
